Anthony Massau
Before joining the FR staff as a platelayer, Anthony Massau was the mainstay and organizer of Lancs. and Cheshire Group working parties. [1] He joined the FR staff in October 1964 and worked for the P.W. for more than three years. He published a brief humorous article about volunteer dress in the FR Magazine. [2]In October 1966 he left the PW department but returned as his Government training course had been unexpectedly postponed for several months and he came back for another spell of platelaying. [3] In summer 1967 it was reported that having returned to the PW Dept. pending a training course, he had decided to stay with the FR and was sharing his time between P.W. and Works departments and driving Prince. [4] 1969 he was a fitter at Boston Lodge and drove Prince in 1968 and took charge of Blanche in 1969. [5] With Bob Harris and Roger Goss and two volunteers (one of whom was Tom Baskcomb) he owned Britomart..[6] He left the staff in January 1971.[7]
Only a few months after he left the paid staff he wrote a long letter to FR Magazine about his views on FR locomotive strategy. He defended the usefulness of Prince which had gone out of service a couple of years previously and pointed to the weak point of all FR locomotives (except perhaps double engines) which was adhesion. Wet weather was an FR engineman's nightmare. Prophetically he describes the Garratt K1 as a white elephant. Finally he suggested the FR should have some FR sized Donegal rail-cars for winter services.[8]
In a letter to FR Magazine in 1987 he questioned the oft repeated statement that Livingston Thompson's boiler was beyond repair. He pointed out that neither on the FR were there any, or working for insurance companies many, boiler repair specialists with experience of locomotive type boilers with copper fireboxes. The locomotive, then stored at Glan y Pwll, had not been stripped down for a full-scale examination so its true state was uncertain. He cautioned against doing anything drastic such as sectioning without a real locomotive boiler expert's opinion.[9] In another letter in the same magazine he criticised the editors for their attitude to standard gauge steam railways.
In 1991 when the WHR rebuilding controversy was going along he questioned how this speculative venture could be be pursued while redundancies were happening on the FR.[10]
In 1980 he showed himself to be a founding member of The Square fan club - although he probably would not have called it that.[11]
In 2016 Tony was a trustee of the 82045 Locomotive Trust which is building from scratch a British Railways Standard Class 3 2-6-2 tank engine. In this connection he got to know Alan C Clothier and was probably associated with the FWHR successfully bidding for work fabricating the tanks, backsheet and bunker of 82045.[12]
References[edit]
- ^ "Introducing the Staff", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 027, page(s): 009
- ^ "Volunteers, Right Dress!", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 026, page(s): 014
- ^ "Staff News", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 032, page(s): 7
- ^ "Staff News", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 037, page(s): 6
- ^ "Introducing the Staff", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 044, page(s): 8
- ^ "Tom Baskcomb", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 088, page(s): 005
- ^ "Staff News", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 052, page(s): 6
- ^ "Correspondence: Locomotives - Ancient & Modern", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 053, page(s): 037
- ^ "Correspondence: Sectioning and Suchlike", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 117, page(s): 030-031
- ^ "Correspondence: WHR - High and Low Level", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 132, page(s): 514
- ^ "Correspondence: Engines and Their Servants", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 089, page(s): 046
- ^ Temple M L (2025) Personal observation.